Content is king—everyone knows that. You want more social shares, put out great content; you want more clicks; put out great content; lower bounce rate, great content; higher rankings and solid link building, great content. As a blogger or editor, it helps to understand that quality writing should help drive your website to success. Finding guest bloggers, installing plugins, managing the design, and monitoring engagement is fun, but it shouldn’t push you too far away from creating some of that great content yourself or in-house (not to mention having high expectations for guest bloggers). If you’re starting to veer away from putting content first, it’s important to get back on track.

So let’s just get right to it. Below highlights some cool evidence and statistics that proves content really is the king of the search world and the leader of every SEO department.

Rankings occur based on content.

When it comes to search engine bots, it’s the content that they can read. You of course want to write for your readers first, but it’s important to keep in the mind that Google bots cannot read photos nearly as well as they can read content. You want to have lots of text, particularly filled with great keywords (used naturally of course), and your rankings should improve. The better you are ranked on a Google SERP, the better chance you have of earning relevant clicks.

Video still counts as content.

Again, also remember that content doesn’t have to be in the form of an article.The cool thing about content being king is that it can come in many different forms. As long as there is some sort of text, it doesn’t matter how that text is presented. Whether you’re including infographics, a bulleted list, or your own creation, the content will rule the page. Video also allows you to add text in descriptions and transcripts, and because video is becoming so crucial, it’s important to get started right away. Learn more here.

Researchers found that colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80% — HubSpot

When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired, people retained 65% of the information three days later — LifeLearn

Shoppers who view video are 1.81X more likely to purchase than non-viewers — Adobe

Infographics are Liked and shared on social media 3X more than any other type of content — MassPlanner

It is where you can have an affect on your audience.

You might be able to grab an audience with an awesome design or great headline, but it’s the content where you can really evoke an emotion. It doesn’t matter if you’re aiming to inspire, inform, or educate, it is the content where you can get this done. It is true that something like a photo can inspire, but bloggers will typically add some sort of caption so that the reader knows where that photo was taken. In this case it’s the photo that is doing the inspiring, but the content that is doing the educating. Both are incredibly important, and this goes for B2B and B2C companies.

97% of respondents to one study admitted that they give more credence to content that includes peer reviews and user-generated content — Demand Gen Report

Marketers who blog are 13X more likely to experience a higher ROI as a result — State of Inbound.

On that same note, B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not blog — HubSpot

It’s the major way to connect with customers others in your industry.

Content is where you can link back to others in your industry and engage with them in your blog comments. A great website and navigation isn’t going to put you on the map, but using your external linking wisely will. It’s all about creating relationships with influencers and starting to get your name out there. Connecting with your industry shows credibility and can help you get ahead overall when it comes to other SEO efforts like link building. Connecting with your customers is also key for obvious reasons, yet many forget that content is a way to make this happen. You’re still communicating even if you’re not talking directly.

By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships without talking to a human –MKT Images

91% of the best business bloggers publish weekly or more often, while only 70% of all other bloggers post at this frequency — Curata

So there you have it. Being able to look at the latest statistics should hopefully help shed light on the fact that every type of company, even e-commerce ones, should make content a priority as soon as possible. Start a blog or start creating Buyer Guides to help get some substance onto those pages.

What evidence do you have that content is a key ranking factor for SEO? Do you have any personal examples? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.